Guay takes gold and bronze medals

Mike Janyk just misses podium in German slalom

With two more medals and yet another close one this past
weekend, the Canadian Alpine Ski Team is well on its way to its goal of 12
World Cup podiums for the 2006-07 season.

The star of the weekend was Mont Tremblant’s Erik Guay, who
picked up his second and third downhill medals of the season at
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, including the first World Cup victory of his career.

He also did it in typical Guay style, flirting with disaster at
every turn and jump to try to squeeze a few more fractions of a second out of
the course.

After struggling with injuries the past two seasons, Guay has
steadily improved with every race this year leading up to his first World Cup
podium in nearly three seasons at Val D’Isere, France on Jan. 20. He came close
to a podium in the recent FIS World Championships, placing fourth after pulling
out of a near-crash, and he carried that momentum into Germany.

In the first race, on Friday, Guay placed third behind Andrej
Jerman of Slovenia and Hans Grugger of Austria. Guay was just 0.44 seconds back
of the leader on that day, and 0.22 back of Grugger.

Two other Canadians finished top-30, with Manuel
Osborne-Paradis and Jan Hudec in 22
nd
and 23
rd
respectively.

Guay’s golden moment came the next day, putting him in an elite
class with Canadian downhillers Steve Podborski, Ken Read, Rob Boyd, Todd
Brooker, Dave Irwin, Cary Mullen and Edi Podivinsky. Mullen was the last member
of the Canadian men’s team to win a World Cup downhill, in 1994.

In his second race Guay was perfect, finishing half a second
ahead of Jerman. Didier Cuche of Switzerland was a close third.

Guay also did it his way.

“It played out at the bottom,” he said. “I had a good line and
brought a lot of speed into it. I took as many risks as possible.

“It’s amazing. I came close yesterday and have been close all
year. It feels great to finally put it all together. This has been in the works
for a while. I feel like my skiing has been getting better and better all the
time.”

Jan Hudec and Manuel Osborne-Paradis also finished in the
top-10, placing fifth and seventh respectively — a solid effort for the
team.

Guay is now ranked fifth in downhill, while Osborne-Paradis is
ninth.

The last event of the weekend was a night slalom in slushy, 15
degree Celsius conditions. Slalom is becoming one of alpine racings most
spectator-friendly events, with about 12,000 spectators lining the course and
filling the bleachers.

Whistler’s Michael Janyk was the top Canadian, just missing his
second World Cup podium of the season by one-tenth of a second. Mario Matt and
Benjamin Raich of Austria were first and third, while Felix Neureuther of
Germany delighted his home crowd by winning the silver.

Although fourth place was a solid result by any standard, Janyk
wanted the hardware.

“Both runs were battles,” he said. “The conditions were as good
as they could be for 15 degree weather.

“Everyone made mistakes and fought it really hard. I knew there
were lots of guys making mistakes so I went all out the whole way down.

“Fourth place is not the easiest. I guess having my sister here
maybe she rubbed off some of her fourth places on me.”

Mike’s sister Britt has finished fourth in her last three super
G starts, missing podiums by just a few hundredths of a second.

Thomas Grandi was
the only other Canadian to qualify
for a second run. He finished 14th.

The weekend was not without its controversies, as downhill
points leader Didier Cuche vented his frustration with a new FIS rule that
starts athletes in the top-30 in the reverse order of their ranking. For
courses like Garmisch, which were softened up by the warm weather, that meant
top-ranked Cuche had to ski a course rutted by the 29 earlier skiers.

Cuche has yet to win a downhill race this year, and blamed his
starting positions for the fact.

A number of skiers also stepped forward to support Cuche. In an
interview with Eurosport.com he said the current system penalizes the top
athletes.

“We are here to say that we are not really happy about the
starting numbers in super G and downhill,” said Marco Buechel of Liechtenstein.

“It’s not good because we are punished when you have good
results.”

The Canadian skiers are now just two medals away from Alpine
Canada’s goal of 12 World Cup medals on the season, with seven athletes winning
10 medals so far. The team missed the goal of two world championship medals by
only a few hundredths of a second, with Britt Janyk and Guay both finishing
fourth.